John Bratby trained at the Royal College of Art in the early 1950s and quickly found fame as the leading member of a group of painters who represented the gritty realities of postwar, working-class British life. The press dubbed them the “kitchen sink school,” and Bratby became a household name with a reputation for heavy drinking and a tempestuous marriage to fellow painter Jean Cooke. This is one a series of large paintings Bratby made in the later 1950s and represents his regular model, Janet Churchman, posing in the studio in four different positions. The artist himself is shown in the act of painting, both in profile and from above, as well as through disembodied arms and hands wielding paintbrushes. This self-consciously performative painting recalls Gustave Courbet’s famous picture The Painter’s Studio of 1855 (Musee d’Orsay, Paris) and suggests an homage to the father of realism. Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2016
